Described herein is a resetting device for at least one controller in a motor vehicle having a reception unit for receiving a reset signal and a resetting unit for resetting at least one setting of the controller to a prescribed reset setting after reception of the reset signal by the reception unit, wherein the resettable setting of the controller is modifiable by a user of the motor vehicle when the motor vehicle is used as intended. Also described herein is a corresponding method for resetting a setting of at least one controller of at least one motor vehicle.
Usually, rental cars, fleet vehicles or carsharing vehicles are cleaned after customer use and, by way of example, equipped with informative material such as flyers for a (mobility) provider. Today's and future vehicles have hundreds of settings that can be individually set or modified by the user when using the motor vehicle. These include, by way of example, the settings for seats, the settings for an air conditioning system and the settings in a navigation appliance. After a customer use, it is then possible, today, for settings in accordance with a company philosophy of the provider, for example, to be reset or else for settings to be erased on the basis of legal data protection considerations manually by employees of the provider only with a very high level of outlay. Thus, settings such as ergonomic settings or an electronic fingerprint from the previous users can often be found in a rental car or the like today. An insight into the privacy of the previous user is also often gained, for example if destinations previously input in a navigation system have not been erased.
The customer of the provider or mobility provider therefore does not find the motor vehicles in a reasoned and standard state defined by the provider. This results in great quality of service losses. By way of example, a previous user may have stored in a navigation system that freeways need to be avoided during route guidance, which the current customer possibly does not notice until it is too late.
In this connection, German Patent Application Publication 10 2012 024 635 A1 describes a resetting apparatus for a motor vehicle that is configured to be in a vehicle and is connected to a vehicle network. The vehicle network likewise has at least two electronic loads connected to it, these being able to be reset to a defined logical state by using the resetting apparatus.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,718,240 B1 describes a keyless entry system for a motor vehicle in which a key fob can be changed over between a guest mode and a driver mode and applicable settings stored in the vehicle are activated for the guest or the driver.
U.S. Pat. No. 9,238,450 B1 describes a vehicle having a multiplicity of settings able to be made by a user that are able to be reset to a factory setting stored in the vehicle by using a remote control signal.